Can you lend me some experience on this dead ash I'm about to drop?

I promised picture and here they are. Nothing too good because I was much more concerned with not letting anything fall on me than being in the right place for photos!

Tree assessment:


Beginning of felling:


I backed off out of the splash zone and took a picture of the crown just before it toppled:


Stump showing just how little good holding wood there was inside the tree:


Walt assessing how to get us out of the wooded area since the only safe way to drop the tree was right across the access to the ridge:


Bucking just enough to get us down off the hill:








I'll repeat my sincere thanks to Walt for dropping this tree. After seeing him approach it and looking at the trunk and stump once it came down, it's a very good thing I didn't touch it. My wife and I started the (significant) cleanup tonight. On its way down, sadly it clobbered 3 6-8" diameter trees and 3 small saplings (3-4") but hey given the choice between clobbering me, clobbering the barn, or clobbering some other trees, I am very dammed happy it only hurt some other trees!. I had to take down 2 of the 6-8" trees that it had snapped off and, frustratingly, they put up more of a fight to get moving than the big one did! The snapped off tops were tangled in other trees and getting the trunk moving towards the ground without the weight in the crown pulling it down and with the extra support of the tangle was a pain in the butt. I had a lot of spring poles to sort out and also had to pay attention to which way things were going to shift as I cut them since I was working on the side of a steep ridge. The great news is that we proved we have a working chipper! A few years ago we bought a 60s-70s Gardenway Super Tomahawk chipper/shredder that needed a lot of love to get it working again. Today was the first time we got to use it enough to confirm that basically all of it works. I need to rebuild the carb still and I need to get it another blade as I had to grind almost all of the one in it away before I got back to a cutting edge. It made quick work of the small branches and leaves. I think after hitting it this afternoon and tonight, we've got all the "brush" sized stuff cleaned up so when I get back out there I only have to deal with firewood-size stuff. We're supposed to have storms in tomorrow, so I'm hoping Wednesday to get out there and start bucking everything up.

 

Nice work fellas. GO walt, good on ya for helping out a fellow member!

 

So so true, and the only reason I ever felt comfortable with dropping some trees was because they were smaller, way way away from the houses where there was almost zero chance of it hitting anything. This is how I learned or should I say got some experience on small, dead trees far far behind my house. Back then never even knew or thought that a tree could be hollowed out in the core or how dangerous that can be with a big tree. One day I was laying into a smaller tree when suddenly I was sprayed with some kind of liquid, scared the Chit out of me, and I jumped. Come to find out it was hollowed out and was filled with water in the core that was shooting out. I still have a section of it, it's perfectly hollowed out, kids use it to stand their yard tools in.

Thanks Dennis, sincerely looking forward to meeting and catching up with Dave soon!!!!

 

The learning never stops. I hope that I am not coming across as a self proclaimed champion of felling. I am not. I have however tried my best to pick up on techniques and whatnot, whenever and however I can. It's hard to learn proper felling without real life experience. Text, pictures and even video just doesn't translate into realworld very well...at least for me. I would love to be a cutter's shadow for a day, pestering with questions along the way.

I am still quite timid when it comes to dropping a tree. I am aware and understand the danger involved and grant much respect for it. There can science and even art involved in getting a tree safely on the ground with a chainsaw. I have been implementing tactics over the years, mostly on smaller stems, learning along the way. I have certainly run into some unexpected/unknown issues along the way as I grow braver and more experienced, the sizes and difficulty of the trees have increased. I am NOT the 'guy to call to take down that leaner by the garage' by any means...

 

Does that mean I'm double covered.. Fool, and Drunk??

 

It was nice to meet Williaty yesterday. Marshel54 offered to ride along and we had a nice trip down there and back.

 

Good on you Walt for helping out a fellow Hoarder!